More and more book reviews are being written about the "Nazi War on Cancer" book by Robert Proctor.

This remarkable book has caught the imagination of a huge number of people on both sides of the smoking wars.

Notwithstanding its desperate denials, the anti-tobacco cartel can no longer shake the paint of fascism from its back. The similarities -- better yet, the identities -- between the war on smoking and the obsession with health in general by the Nazis and today's health "revolution" (as labeled by Gro Harlem Brutland of the WHO) are simply astonishing.

But this is NOT a coincidence. The following logic closed-loop quite simply explains the identity, which exists regardless of the political credo:

• Public health needs a strong state.
• The strong state needs broad powers in order to implement public health. Personal liberties and freedom of choice are the largest obstacles to such implementation, and they must be eliminated by submitting them to public health values at first, and by eventual abrogation when they are sufficiently weakened.
• The strong state needs to justify its actions. For political reasons, that justification must appear rational. This is where junk science, for example, comes in.
• Of course, public health, even when the issue is in the ascendant, is not necessarily the sole or primary motivation for those who seek to build a strong state. Public health is, however, the perfect rationalization for the state intrusion into the lives of citizens. Such intrusion is essential for those who seek, for whatever reasons, to expand state power.
• The strong state also needs healthy citizens to maximize income and minimize expenditures.
• For all the above reasons, the strong state needs public health. Any long term social consequences are of no concern for the politicians in power today.

The Germans fell for the promise of a healthy, orderly, safe society in 1933 when -- let's not forget it -- they democratically elected the Nazi Party to power. Ironically, democracy was the first victim of its own choice. Today we are making the same mistake: we are falling for the promise of a healthy, orderly and safe society by allowing a restricted oligarchy of doctors and activists to run our lives, and tell us what to do and believe.

Fascism is at it again. And once again, we run the risk of paying dearly for listening to the siren song of its promises of safety, happiness, and a bright future for our children, based on the premise of "zero tolerance."

Link to the review by Pierre Lemieux of "The Nazi War on Cancer"